US bars Turkey from using Pak pilots for F-16s training

ANKARA: The United States government has reportedly turned down a proposal put forth by Turkey to use Pakistani pilots for F-16 training, hinting at the fraught relations between Washington and Islamabad, the Indian media reported on Tuesday.

The refusal was quoted by a pro-government columnist Mehmet Acet, who in Yeni afak daily claimed that Turkish Air Forces asked Pakistan to send three F-16 pilots to train their pilots. Pakistan, being a very close friend, welcomed the Turkish request, however, the US refused to allow Ankara to go with Pakistani trainers, wrote Acet while quoting a senior general as a source.

According to an F16 purchase agreement between Turkey and the United States, the US must give green light to any third party involvement in the use of the aircraft. According to Acet, the general used a Turkish idiom in response to Washington’s refusal, saying, ‘This means you fall down where you are.’

Although, the Turkish air force is having a sizeable majority and generally there’s no need for pilots by any third country but as a result of the botched coup in 2016, Turkey purged 680 of 1,350 pilots in the Turkish Air Forces. In order to compensate for the paucity of pilots, the government called“The moment this division came on the surface, the US wasted no time to cash in on this situation,” the JUI-F leader said.

Under this very process, action was taken in Afghanistan, Yemen, Middle East, Iraq, Libya and Syria but China challenged it, he added. He said Pakistan had embarked on a new journey of economic prosperity and now there was no room for even a negligible mistake for at least two decades.

He said the reservations of provinces about the population census should be properly addressed.  He said the deprivations and grievances of Balochistan must be immediately addressed and removed adding that no armed outfit should exit in any part of the country because no one was above the law.

He said the bright side of Pakistani politics was that whenever the country went through a bad patch and the political leadership gave the clarion call, the civil-military relations improved and all political parties joined their forces to deal with the challenges head on.

To a question about Sh. Rashid Ahmed, Fazl said he was his best friend and brother and the media should not create any dispute between them. He also refused to reply a question about Imran Khan saying that he had closed this doors to him forever. To a question, he said Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution will not be removed.